Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Superconductivity: The puzzle is taking shape: ...subjected samples of a cuprate known as “YBaCuO” to particularly strong magnetic fields (thousands of times more powerful than those of the small magnets used on fridge doors). Using the technique of nuclear magnetic resonance, the researchers probed this superconductor at the atomic scale and discovered that electrons, under such intense fields, tend to align into rectilinear filaments or “stripes”.